After disappointment of 2006, American star Landon Donovan feels prepared for World Cup

Harry How/GettyLandon Donovan will lead the U.S. National squad in South Africa.Landon Donovan says he is ready now. He thought he was ready four years ago, when the U.S. team went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany looking to build on its surprising performance in Japan/South Korea in 2002. And the midfielder/forward had been a big part of that 2002 tournament, with two big goals that helped get the U.S. to the quarterfinals.

But in Germany, Donovan suffered through a goal-less, assist-less, disappointment, managing a single shot in three games as the U.S. was quickly eliminated from the tournament.

Donovan brooded over that failure for a long time, but he insists he isn't thinking about it now. Now one of America's best soccer players, fresh off a wildly successful 10-week loan spell with English Premier League club Everton over the winter and a fast start to the Major League Soccer season, is thinking all good thoughts as he prepares to lead the U.S. to the World Cup next month in South Africa.

"In life, you have opportunities that come around every so often that you'd like to take advantage of,'' Donovan said Tuesday at Princeton University, where the U.S. is training this week. "And (in 2006) I wasn't prepared, nor did I take advantage of it.''

At 28, with his hairline receding and permanent wrinkle lines showing in his forehead, Donovan is feeling like a wise, old veteran who's been around the world a few times and seen about everything there is to see. He spoke freely of his 2006 marriage to and 2009 divorce from actress Bianca Kajlich, whom he says taught him much about himself. And he seems at peace with himself.

"I'm more 'real' than I was,'' he said. "I'm more 'centered,' and those things give you confidence, but also ease that whatever comes, you're going to be okay with. ... I'm in a much better place now, than I was in the past.''

Donovan burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old in 1999 when he took home the Golden Ball as the best player in the World Under-17 Championship and then signed a pro contract with German club Bayer Leverkusen. A couple years later, when he felt he wasn't getting a fair shot by the club, he got himself loaned to MLS, where he helped lead the San Jose Earthquakes to a pair of MLS titles. After halfheartedly going back to Leverkusen in 2005, when his loan period was up, he quickly engineered a return to MLS with the L.A. Galaxy, whom he led to another MLS title.

These days, he's the all-time appearances leader for the U.S. among active non-goalkeepers (121), and he's the all-time leading goal-scorer (42) and the leader in career assists (42).

His time at Everton proved without a doubt he has the ability to play at the top level in Europe, which had been a question in the minds of some after his unsatisfying times in Germany with Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, where he played on loan in 2008.

"I think he showed that he's really talented,'' U.S. goalkeeper and Everton teammate Tim Howard said of Donovan's time in England. "We all knew that. It was an opportunity for him to show and to be in a good team where he had and opportunity. ... He showed that he can compete on that level. But we kind of already knew that.''